Cubs fans relish World Series win at Mets spring training game
Grace Ramey // Ball State Spring Training
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Grace Ramey // Ball State Spring Training
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Colin Grylls // Ball State Spring Training // March 5, 2017
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA — Blue fences, seats and jerseys are mainstays at First Data Field, but one family was wearing a darker shade of blue for the New York Mets’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday.
Eric and Joe Brandt, residents from nearby Stuart, Florida, lined up next to the Cardinals’ dugout decked out in full Chicago Cubs gear. Their only goal — get an autograph from St. Louis outfielder Dexter Fowler, who won the World Series with Chicago last season.
“I never thought I’d have the opportunity knowing Chicago plays out in Arizona this time of year and we can only ever make it up to Wrigley Field once or twice a year,” Eric, 19, said. “So to have this opportunity was a big thing and we couldn’t pass it up.”
Eric and Joe, 25, climbed down the steps towards the field an hour and a half before the 1:10 p.m. game towards the line of red jerseys standing along the batting cage.
“I’ve never felt so judged,” Eric, 19, said.
Fowler didn’t make a big deal out of it, signing the left shoulder of Eric’s shirt.
“He walked away and that was it,” Joe said.
But their dad, Mike, didn’t let them off so easy.
Mike, 52, grew up in Chicago and raised his boys to root for the Cubs. He moved south to attend the Florida Institute of Technology and was at First Data Field Sunday working as an EMT, and he said it was a dream come true when Fowler and the Cubs won the World Series.
“When the game was over I looked at the boys and said, ‘I never thought I’d live to see this day.’ I don’t care if they do for the next 108 years, I was there — well I wasn’t there, but I was alive when it happened, and I’ll treasure that forever.”
He said he got a good laugh from watching his sons trying to talk players on a team they’re rooting against.
“I got a picture of them waiting for an autograph and I said ‘Now I have something to blackmail you with,’” he said.
It wasn’t unexpected though. Mike estimates that 75 percent of their wardrobes have Cubs logos, and their cars have the team’s bumper stickers.
“Full Cubs gear every day of the week, doesn’t matter where we we’re at,” Mike said.
Even at a spring training game thousands of miles away from Chicago’s spring training facilities in Arizona.
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA — Blue fences, seats and jerseys are mainstays at First Data Field, but one family was wearing a darker shade of blue for the New York Mets’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday.
Eric and Joe Brandt, residents from nearby Stuart, Florida, lined up next to the Cardinals’ dugout decked out in full Chicago Cubs gear. Their only goal — get an autograph from St. Louis outfielder Dexter Fowler, who won the World Series with Chicago last season.
“I never thought I’d have the opportunity knowing Chicago plays out in Arizona this time of year and we can only ever make it up to Wrigley Field once or twice a year,” Eric, 19, said. “So to have this opportunity was a big thing and we couldn’t pass it up.”
Eric and Joe, 25, climbed down the steps towards the field an hour and a half before the 1:10 p.m. game towards the line of red jerseys standing along the batting cage.
“I’ve never felt so judged,” Eric, 19, said.
Fowler didn’t make a big deal out of it, signing the left shoulder of Eric’s shirt.
“He walked away and that was it,” Joe said.
But their dad, Mike, didn’t let them off so easy.
Mike, 52, grew up in Chicago and raised his boys to root for the Cubs. He moved south to attend the Florida Institute of Technology and was at First Data Field Sunday working as an EMT, and he said it was a dream come true when Fowler and the Cubs won the World Series.
“When the game was over I looked at the boys and said, ‘I never thought I’d live to see this day.’ I don’t care if they do for the next 108 years, I was there — well I wasn’t there, but I was alive when it happened, and I’ll treasure that forever.”
He said he got a good laugh from watching his sons trying to talk players on a team they’re rooting against.
“I got a picture of them waiting for an autograph and I said ‘Now I have something to blackmail you with,’” he said.
It wasn’t unexpected though. Mike estimates that 75 percent of their wardrobes have Cubs logos, and their cars have the team’s bumper stickers.
“Full Cubs gear every day of the week, doesn’t matter where we we’re at,” Mike said.
Even at a spring training game thousands of miles away from Chicago’s spring training facilities in Arizona.
